I’m Lisa Libin, And This Is How I Get It DONE

Welcome back to our series This Is How I Get It DONE, where we take moment to interview members of the PR In Canada community to find out more about the person behind the desk, how they got their start, their current role (and everything in between). For our third episode we talked to Lisa Libin.

Current Gig: Cat-herder, people pleaser, professional wordsmither and crisis controller

One word to describe your work style: Passionate

Tell us a little about your background and how you got to where you are today: My background has always been focused around working with people. I always had customer service part time jobs through school and decided early on in my university career that public relations was the right career for me. I moved to Toronto and began my career working with a number of national agencies where I was fortunate to cut my teeth working with blue-chip technology and consumer brands. I was able to truly geek-out working with video game companies, software organizations and consumer technology products of all sorts. My love for the mountains brought me back to Calgary where I took an agency hiatus to get some experience in non-profit and the corporate sector but missed the variety of clients and work that agency provided. I moved back to agency and have been with Brookline PR ever since.

What is a typical work day like for you? Basically whatever I have planned has usually gone out the window by 9 a.m… a typical work day can be anything from client calls, issues management, on-site at events, writing press releases, pitching media, reviewing media reports, developing communications plans, pitching new business, media training…should I go on? Basically “typical” is not a word in my day-to-day vocabulary!

What made you choose the profession of public relations? What was a moment in your career that really helped define you? Growing up, I was set on becoming a veterinarian but I was awful at math and physics! I took a semester to do anything but those two subject and ended up in a communications & media course. At the same time, Burger King was involved in a foot contamination PR crisis and I became interested in how media were reporting on this and how Burger King was managing the issue. From then on, I decided I was best to simply own a dog and instead focus my career aspirations on a path in public relations.

How do you balance family-work? As a mom with two young kids, being there for my family is essential. I am fortunate to work in an agency where I am to be able to drive my kids to school, take time off to be at school concerts, volunteer in their classes and pick them up at the end of the day. We have numerous working moms at Brookline PR that all support each other and understand when we need to rush out because a kid is sick or we need to be at a personal commitment. It is important for me for our family to sit down together every night and that I can read them each stories and put them to bed and I ensure those times my phone off and I can truly have that family time each night, both for them and for me.

9-5 is LONG gone, what is one shortcut or life hack that works for you? I am thankful daily for Bluetooth and iphones which allow me to be on the go while still connected to my team and clients when needed. My best time to really catch up on things is on the phone in my car.